Alfred Help Center

Frequently Asked Questions

Hey Superheroes
We understand you may need some help . Here are some tips to make Alfred your best home security system.

Getting Started

How do I set up the camera?

Download Alfred to two devices (or one device if you plan to use the Webviewer), log in to the same Gmail account, and you are all set!

Alfred adopts @gmail.com only, and if you are using @googlemail.com, here is what Gmail suggests:

If you already use Google Mail and would prefer an @gmail.com address, you have the option to change to the matching @gmail.com username. If you make this address swap, it only affects your address; your account settings, contacts, and existing mail won't change, and any mail sent to your old @googlemail.com address will automatically be redirected to your new address.

If you would like to change your @googlemail.com address to @gmail.com, just click "switch to @gmail.com" in the "Accounts" tab in your Gmail Settings (this link will only show up if you're eligible to change your address).

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Can I have multiple cameras under one account?

Yes! Alfred supports an unlimited number of camera and viewer devices. You can set up as many cameras as you need.

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Does my camera need a SIM?

The answer, dear Alfredians, is no!
As long as your phone is connected to the Internet, Alfred will be functioning 100% anytime, anywhere. You don’t have to keep paying your phone bills just to use Alfred. There is no monthly plan or extra cost, which means it is truly completely free!

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Does my camera need to be connected to the internet?

Yes. Internet connection is required to send your videos from camera to viewer. Usually, most Alfredians connect their camera device with home WiFi, and their viewer device with mobile network/office network. Would you give Alfred a try now?

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Does my camera need to be plugged in?

Yes, if you are using Alfred for more than a few hours, we would strongly suggest you plug your camera phone in.

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Why do I need a Gmail account?

Alfred adopts Google login to authenticate user identity. You don’t need to enter your Gmail password before using Alfred, which brings your information security to a higher level. Alfred relies on Google technology for the communication between the devices. Therefore, a Gmail account is mandatory.

Alfred adopts @gmail.com only, and if you are using @googlemail.com, here is what Gmail suggests:

If you already use Google Mail and would prefer an @gmail.com address, you have the option to change to the matching @gmail.com username. If you make this address swap, it only affects your address; your account settings, contacts, and existing mail won't change, and any mail sent to your old @googlemail.com address will automatically be redirected to your new address.

If you would like to change your @googlemail.com address to @gmail.com, just click "switch to @gmail.com" in the "Accounts" tab in your Gmail Settings (this link will only show up if you're eligible to change your address).

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Can I use @googlemail.com for Alfred?

Alfred adopts @gmail.com only, and if you are using @googlemail.com, here is what Gmail suggests:

If you already use Google Mail and would prefer an @gmail.com address, you have the option to change to the matching @gmail.com username. If you make this address swap, it only affects your address; your account settings, contacts, and existing mail won't change, and any mail sent to your old @googlemail.com address will automatically be redirected to your new address.

If you would like to change your @googlemail.com address to @gmail.com, just click "switch to @gmail.com" in the "Accounts" tab in your Gmail Settings (this link will only show up if you're eligible to change your address).

If I change, what happens to all my existing email and contacts?

Nothing changes! Changing your address does not create a new account, it just changes the address for your existing account. All of your existing mail and contacts will be available with your new @gmail.com address.

Can I view multiple cameras from one account?

Yes! Besides sending you a push notification when motion is detected, Alfred automatically refreshes the thumbnails every 15 seconds.

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How do I set up notifications?

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Can I delete events from my phone?

Long press the event, and you'll see a trash can.

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Can I save videos?

For the latest version, if you choose to share the video clips, an encrypted link is generated and it will never expire. In the next update, you will be able to download and save the clips directly so please stay tuned!

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How do I use the web viewer on a computer?

It’s simple! Open the Webviewer on Firefox and log in to the same Gmail account. You’re ready to go!

Why only FireFox?
At this moment, Chrome and Safari do not support Alfred's web viewer. A key media component is missing from Chrome, but sources have indicated that Google has promised to support it shortly. Alfred is attentive to the beta feature of every chrome release and hopefully it will come very soon.
When it comes to convenience and security, Alfred doesn't compromise. We are sorry that the research and development takes time and we are working on building a Chrome-compatible web viewer now. We'd really really appreciate your understanding. Please continue your support for Alfred and stay tuned. I'll make sure that you are the first one to know when Alfred is available on Chrome.

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Features and Settings

How do I activate motion detection?

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How do I use two-way talk?

It works like a walkie-talkie. Long press the button while you talk, and release the button after you finish the sentence.

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What is that green icon with number on my screen?

It indicates the battery level of your camera phone. If your camera phone is always plugged in, it might always be 100%.

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How do I build a trust circle?

Why Build a Trust Circle? Trust Circle is designed for friends, family, or even neighbors to lend a helpful, watchful eye. Adding people to the Trust Circle rather than giving them your Gmail login protects your privacy. You might want them to have access to your camera phone, but not necessarily to your calendar, email, and so on. Can I and someone from my trust circle view the camera phone at the same time?

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Can I manually change how long Alfred records the videos for?

Alfred records 5-30 second videos depending on the motion. The algorithm decides how long the video is. The reason why the recordings are short is because we want to notify you right away. We want to make sure that if your house is broken into, we'd let you know in 30 seconds.

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What is Smart Mode?

We want Alfred to be as user-friendly as possible. That’s why we developed Smart Motion Detection!

Here is an example: if Alfred guards your house while you are at work, you’d want to leave Motion Detection on. When you get home however, you might not want Alfred to send you hundreds of notifications with clips of you walking around. Therefore, when your viewer phone joins the network where your camera(s) are installed, it sends you an option to turn OFF motion detection and vice versa. This intuitive design saves you the time for having to change the settings manually. Neat huh? Would you give it a try now? Here is how:

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Security and Privacy

How does Alfred protect my privacy?

Your privacy is of the utmost importance to us, and we do everything to make sure your information stays safe with us. We will not share any data you generated with Alfred with others.

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Is Alfred secure?

Great question!! If we may, please allow us to explain why Alfred is your top choice for secured surveillance:

The videos and pictures are stored securely under Amazon's Simple Storage Service. Not just the video/picture is encrypted when stored, it's also encrypted during transmission.

Alfred has established strict policies and technical barriers to prevent unauthorized access to your data. How? With the support of top-tier cyber security mechanisms— W3C, Google, Android, and Amazon— Alfred is equipped with the most advanced protection.

1. Alfred uses bank-level 2048-bit SSL for all communications to encrypt your video all the way from your camera end to the viewer end.
2. With Google authentication, Alfred provides the strongest security for your account. Google verifies identities when you log in on a new device or different locations, to ensure no one is breaking into your account and raise your security awareness.
3. Your credential is managed by Android, not by Alfred. It means that when you log in with yourGoogle account, your username and password are verified by Android. Alfred does not have access to your information.
4. Alfred secures your data in point-2-point transit. Unlike other surveillance apps, Alfred adopts the highest-level protocol, DTLS, to encrypt your video. It prevents your video from being hacked between the 2 points in network.
5. Your user data is stored securely on Amazon S3, the most secured clouding storage in the world with the highest-quality encryption technologies.
6. Each Alfred server API call uses reverse proxy. The transmission takes an extremely short time and is protected by users credentials.
In summary, security is one of Alfred's top priorities to ensure our customers always feel safe. For live video Alfred uses peer-to-peer technology so no video stream will pass through Alfred's server. Every access to our backend servers is enforced with latest HTTPS standard together with Google account authentication, this prevents any eavesdropping or hacking attempts which could possibly compromise your data security.

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Troubleshooting

I can’t watch video. What’s wrong?

There are a few simple steps you can take to check connections.
1. Check if you camera is connected to the internet.
2. Connect your viewer device to a mobile network.
If it works, maybe it’s your office wifi/hotel wifi/airport wifi that is blocking the connection.

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Alfred said "The camera is not connected"

Possible reasons include:
1) Alfred has just recently been updated automatically
2) your phone has been powered off
3) Alfred had been stopped unexpectly.
For the Android version of Alfred, you can wake Alfred up by tapping the yellow arrows displayed on top of the camera image.

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Will my camera reconnect to my network automatically?

Yes, every time when your phone is connected to a different network, Alfred will also try to reconnect to the server automatically

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Why is my Camera device warm to the touch?

Like all electronic devices, your camera phone will produce a certain amount of heat while it's turned on. If your phone gets warm after watching YouTube videos for hours, it is natural that it gets warm after delivering video for hours. It is not unusual for the camera to be quite warm to the touch, especially when night vision is activated. Overheating should not be a problem or a concern, but we do have a few tips to help your Alfred stay cool.

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What if my camera falls asleep?

The viewer phone can wake up the camera, just tap the yellow circle, but please make sure the camera phone is on. If the camera phone turns itself off, there is nothing the viewer phone can do. Please make sure the camera phone is plugged in to a power source.

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Why can't I remove a camera from my list?

Alfred by design adds a new camera to the list automatically when it comes online, so when you try to delete a camera that is online, it will soon be added back to the list. Camera deletion only works when the camera is offline.

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Why the battery is not charging when Alfred is up and running as camera?

Your charger may not supply enough current to the phone. Please try using the original cable and charger that came from the device manufacturer if you are not using them already.

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Can I connect Alfred to other IP cam/wireless cameras/webcam/surveillance system?

No. Alfred is a mobile app. We understand that you think Alfred offers a simpler and better user experience and that your last smartphone has great cameras, speaker, microphone and connectivity than other wireless cameras in the market. Alfred turns smartphones and tablets into security cameras but he doesn't support other systems

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Tips

How much extra space do I need on an Alfred device?

About 24-25 MB, if you take into account the snapshots and video clips Alfred might take.

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How much data in general does Alfred send/receive?

The internet data usage varies depending on how you use Alfred and the environment.

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Can I update my devices from my computer?

Yes. This is a wonderful feature from Google Play Store. We know that sometimes your Camera device is placed close to the ceiling or in a garage corner and updating may means a lot of work.
On your computer, go to Alfred's page on Google Play Store, click on the green button that says "Installed".

And then, you can update all of your devices remotely from your computer. This is really convenient, isn't it? Alfred works the best when Camera AND Viewer devices are all updated to the latest version.

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Why do I receive notifications like these?

Alfred lets you know as soon as your Camera Phone is not being properly charged. The moment the Camera Phone is disconnected from the power source, you will get the first push notification telling you it has stopped charging. Depending on how good your battery is, Alfred might be able to last another while:

When the battery level drops below a certain percentage, you will receive another notification:

Alfred also reminds you when there is a problem with your charger/cable. If your Camera Phone is plugged in without being charged fast enough, this is what you’ll see:

What can I do?
First of all, whenever possible, keep Alfred connected to a power source to avoid battery problems. Second, use the original charger/cable to make sure they can keep Alfred charged efficiently!